The Head of HR and Organisational Development submitted a report that presented a review of the Council’s employment policy framework which aimed to ensure that all employment policies were clear, easy to understand, up to date and reviewed regularly.  The following appendices were attached to the report:

The report explained the all employment policies would be reviewed by HR before then end of March 2019 and submitted to the Committee for approval, following consultation and negotiation with the trade unions.  The policies contained in the report had been prioritised because they did not reflect current employment legislation and hence had put the Council at risk.  The policies had been re-written with four principles in mind and broadly reflected the template policies that were available on the Unison website, where available.  In future all employment policies would be reviewed every two years or sooner if legislation required it.

For each of the existing policies which needed to be revised the issues that needed to be addressed, and additional key changes that were being proposed, were set out in a timetable that had been included in the report.  In all cases, any issues that had been highlighted had been addressed in the revised policy.  The process for agreeing the policies with trade unions was set out in the report, trade unions representatives had been unable to agree the policies with their members within the timetable.  However, at a meeting in October 2018 individual views of the full-time trade union officials from Unite, Unison and NEU were discussed and the policies were amended to take account of their views. A communication plan was also being drawn up to communicate the revised policies, once agreed, to managers and employees.

Jackie Yates, Director or Resources, reported that once the new employment policies had been approved a communications plan would be implemented which would make use of the intranet and well as work with the trade unions to ensure all staff were aware that the policies had been changed.  There would also be training for all managers so that they understood what was expected of them and, in respect of bullying and harassment, what was not acceptable behaviour.

The Committee discussed the report and agreed that the new employment policies should be approved subject to final consultation with the trade unions.

Resolved –

(1)     That the following employment revised/new policies be approved, subject to one final consultation meeting with the trade unions:

(a)     Discipline

(b)     Grievance (including collective grievance)

(c)      Managing sickness absence

(d)     Managing poor performance

(e)     Bullying and harassment

(f)      Flexible working

(g)      Social media

(2)     That the Head of HR and Organisational Development be granted delegated authority to make minor revisions to HR policies to ensure they are kept up to date, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Corporate and Consumer Affairs, for example to reflect changes in job titles or departments names and to make changes relating to administration of systems once iTrent self-service has been rolled out (for example to incorporate online sickness reporting when this replaces the paper-based system referred to in the Sickness Absence Management Policy).